Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Jeanne C. Carr]
Transcription
[4]
many of them as you wish together with as many other Yosemite things that you may ask for & send it out to you before the pack train makes its last trip. I know the Spiren you speak of, it is abundant all around the top of the valley & on the rocks at lake Tanaga & reaches almost to the very summit about Mt Dana. There is also a purple one very abundant in the fringe meadows of Yosemite Creek a mile or two back from the brink of the falls Of course it will be a source of keen pleas- ure to me to procure you anything you may desire. I should like to see that grand Ag[illegible]. I saw some in Cuba but they did not exceed twenty- five or thirty feet in height I have thought of a walk in the wild gardens of Honolula & now that you speak of my going there it becomes very probable as you seem to understand me better than I do myself, I have no square idea about the time I shall get myself away from here. I shall at least stay till you come. I fear that the Agana will be in the spirit world ere that time, You say that I ought to have such a place as you saw in the gardens of that mile & half of climate, Well I think those lemon & orange groves would do perhaps to make a living but for a garden I
00514 [1] [1870]
#42 1870
Sunday May 29th Yosemite
Dear friend I recd your "apology" two days ago & ran my eyes hastily over it three or four lines at a time to find the place that would say you were coming, but you "fear" that you cannot come at all, & only 'hope' that the Doctor may; but I shall continue to look for you nevertheless, The Chicago party you speak of were here & away again before your letter arrived, All sorts of human stuff is being poured into our valley this year. & the blank fleshly apathy with which most of it comes in contact with the rock & water spirits of the place is most amazing I do not wonder that the thought of such people being here makes you 'mad", but after all Mrs Carr, they are about harmless they climb sprawlingly to their saddles
3[5]
should not have anything less than a piece of pur nature I was reading Thoreaus Maine woods a short time ago, As described by him these woods are exactly like those of Canada west. How I long to meet Linnea & C[illegible] [illegible] once more. I would rather see these two children of the evergreen woods than all the twentyseven species of palm that [illegible] met on the [illegible] These summer days "go on" calmly & evenly scarce a mark of the frost 7 snow of the 13th is visible the breekens are four or five feet high already - the earliest Azalias have opened & the whole crop of buds is ready to burst The river does not overflow its banks now but it is exactly brim full The thermometer averages about 75[need degree symbol] at noon. We have sunshine every morning from a bright blue
[2]
like overgrown frogs pulling themselves up a stream bank through the bent sedges,- ride up the valley with about as much emotion as the horses they ride upon.-are comfortable when they have "done it all" & long for the safety & flatness of their proper homes, In your first letter to the valley you complain of the desecrating influences of the fashionable hordes about to visit her, & say that you mean to come only once more & "into the beyond" I am pretty sure that you are wrong in saying & feeling 20, for the tide of visitors will float slowly about the bottom of the valley as a harmless scum collecting in hotel & saloon eddies, leaving the rocks & falls elognent as ever, & instruct with imperishable beauty & greatness, & recollect that the top of the valley is more than half way to real heaven & the Lord has many mansions away in the Sierra equal in power &glory to
[3]
Yosemite though not quite so open & I venture to say that you will yet see the valley many times both in & out of the the body, I am glad you are going to the coast mountains to sleep on Diablo, Angels are this, I am sure that you will be lifted above all the effects of your material work - There is a precious natural charm in sleeping under the open starry sky, You will have a very perfect view of the Joaquin Valley, & the snowy pearly wall of the Sierra Nevada., I lay for weeks last summer upon a bed of pine leaves at the edge of a daisy gentian meadow in full view of Mt Dana - Mrs Hutchings says that the lily bulbs were so far advanced in their growth when she dug some to send you that they could not be packed without being broken. but I am going to be here all summer & I know where the grandest plantation of these bulbs grow & I will box up as
[6]
sky ranges of Cumuli appear towards the summits with great regularity every day about 11 o'- clock making a splendid back- ground for the south dome-in a few hours these clouds disappear & give up the sky to sunny evening Mr Hutchings arrived here from Washington a week ago There is sixty or seventy visitors here at present I have rec'd only two letters from you this winter & spring, dated Fan' 22d & May 7th I kissed your [illegible] one for you she wishes that she knew the way to Oakland that she might come to you Remember me to the Doctor and all your boys & to your little Allie I remain ever yours most cordially J Muir
00514
Location
Yosemite
Circa Date
[1870] May 29
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to [Jeanne C. Carr], [1870] May 29." (1870). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 1343.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/1343
Resource Identifier
muir02_0287-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0287
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
